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Published: August 27th 2007
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globe
a big amazing globe fountian at the biggest village shop in the world! On Thursday I left school early at 2pm and came home to pack. We packed up the car and left for Lapaijarvi at around 3pm. We drove for four hours until we reached the biggest village store in the world, Veljekset Keskinen, where we stopped to eat and shop. We were there for an hour or so and then we drove another hour and arrived at my host parent’s summer cottage at around 9. It was beautiful; a log cabin right on the lake. At first I thought it was small to be able to sleep all of us AND have a sauna but after walking through the kitchen I saw the view out the back windows. There were three other building along the river, connected to the main house by wooden board walks. The furthest away was the boat garage, then the sauna house and to the left there was the outhouse or “huussi” (toilet with no water), connected to that house was a small bedroom with a bunk bed and another really long bed. Emma and I slept in there! After we unpacked our clothes we both went to sauna! We did facials between saunas, ate hawiian style pizza
moose...
moose footprint! getting closer!!!!!! woo hoo! and fell asleep late.
On Friday morning I woke up at noon and Leena took me to the forest to hike and collect mushrooms. I learned a lot about mushrooms and which ones are poisionous and what not…but I was also searching for moose. I didn’t find one but I did find some tracks; they were huge! After two huge buckets of mushrooms and a few hours of searching, we headed back for the cottage. Leena started cleaning the mushrooms and I walked down to the boat garage to meet Erkki and Matti (he owns the cottage next door). We got on our life vests and lowered the boat. It was really windy and there were huge waves so it took a few tries to get the boat out safely. We headed out toward the middle of the lake where there were two flags floating about 50 meters apart; it was the net. We started at one end of the net, Matti would lift it at the front of the boat and Erkki would squeeze the fish out. After fifteen minutes of emptying the net we had a nice bag of 17 big fish! When we got home Erkki
mushrooms
these are tiny... but they are the kind we were collecting! they are not all so small! cleaned the fish and Leena smoked them for dinner. At around 8 Erkki’s sister, her husband and her two daughters arrived pulling their huge fifth wheel! After an hour of trying to turn around and park everyone headed in for dinner. After dinner we all sauned again and I went swimming in the lake…in the dark! It was crazy, I was so nervous. My host mom kept laughing at me because I was to scared to walk in the water because I thought I would hit a rock so I stood in one place for a while…then when I couldn’t feel my legs anymore from the cold I went under water!!!
On Saturday morning we all woke up late. We ate breakfast at around 1pm and relaxed for most of the day. Emma, Karoliina ( Erkki’s neice) and I went to pick rasberries for a while in the woods. We sauned again and went swimming a lot this time since it was earlier and there was daylight! Later in the evening we started setting up the yard for Venetsialiset, or the last day of summer celebration. Emma and Karoliina gathered wood for the bonfire and Leena and I lit
mushrooms
the buckets full! candles and placed them all over the yard. When it started to get dark Leena’s best friend Jana came with her husband and we all ate dinner together. Oh and guess what we had…MUSHROOM SOUP, MUSHROOM GRAVY, AND MUSHROOM SALAD. And yes, for all of you who didn’t know, the only thing I wrote down on my rotary application under dislikes was MUSHROOMS….the crazy thing is…I loved the mushroom soup, and it was basically plane mushrooms, made from mushrooms we had collected the day before! After dinner it was really dark and people started shooting off fireworks around the lake. We lit the bonfire and I roasted a makkara on the tip of a metal sword. When it started to get cold Emma, Karoliina and Rosaliina and I played a game of cards inside called Paska or “Shit”, then went to sleep!
On Sunday we cleaned and packed everything up. Erkki’s sisters family AKA my “host relatives” left at 2pm and we locked up and left at 3pm. We drove a different route home and stopped in Seinajoki to visit my “host grandmother”. She is Leena’s 90 year old mother! We stayed at her house for an hour eating
searching
searching for moose! sandwiches and cake. We finally arrived at home at 8ish and relaxed. We ate dinner then Emma and I did our nails and watched Grease!
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